


At Second Sight

by Emony



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, E.R.
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-09
Updated: 2010-01-09
Packaged: 2017-10-06 00:58:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emony/pseuds/Emony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neela is surprised a by a figure from her past, there to change her future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	At Second Sight

**Author's Note:**

> Written for twistedshorts August event 09, uses FfA pairing Rupert Giles/Neela (ER)  
> First posted 06 August 2009

He was not as she had remembered him from her youth. When she had been younger, after college but before university, she had spent a summer doing research. At least, that was all she told her friends. She really had been doing research, just not the kind they'd thought. Her family was a Watcher family, had been since before India had become part of Victoria's ever reaching empire. And, whilst she would not be the one of her generation to carry the torch for a while - that would be her younger brother, she and the rest of her siblings each spent a summer learning the basics.

At eighteen she had been a little, alright a lot, full of herself. Convinced she knew everything about any subject she would need. She already had an acceptance at Yale and planned to go into medicine eventually. Her whole life had been set out in front of her - she just needed to get through this one pointless summer to be able to get there.

He had been the very American picture of an English gentleman. All Tweed and tea and scones. And uptight, very uptight. Not at all appreciative of any jokes she ever made to brighten up the dull days stuck in the Council's library of horrors, the very fact she was making jokes was telling as to the dullness.

She had even managed to get Mr headboy himself to crack a smile once, but never him, never Rupert Giles.

So back then, before her life, she had been the eighteen year old brat in tight jean shorts that she changed into at the tube station toilets where her mother couldn't find out and he was the uptight scholar stuck teaching her what she didn't want to know.

Now though, now was a very different story.

***

It had been a busy day in the ER, so busy she hadn't had time to breathe, let alone think of the mess that was her life; a dead army husband, a best friend who wouldn't look at her; and the biggest jerk in Chicago as a boyfriend.

Then he'd walked in. She hadn't noticed at first, she was so far into charting up the last three cases before she picked up another four that it was the sudden silence (and the following muttering) from the nurses that made her look up.

It would be cliche to say she'd looked up and right into his eyes, but that was the truth.

She could see what the muttering was about, he'd aged well and the leather jacket and jeans look suited him well.

"Dr. Rasgotra," he started, smiling at her. Ignoring the sighing at his accent going on behind her she answered,

"Mr. Giles."

"Could I have a word?" he continued, seemingly oblivious to the chaos of the ER around them.

She suddenly felt like a teenager all over again, so it came as no surprise that her answer made her sound like her eighteen year old self.

"If you hadn't noticed, it's a little busy around here," she snarked, then feeling embarrassed and apologetic at her overreaction she added, "my shift ends in about two hours, if you'll still be here?"

"I will," was his only answer as he left to take a seat in the waiting room. He watched as he sat down next to a teenage girl, her heart felt suddenly cold as she realised who, or rather what, the poor girl must be. She shook herself and turned to the still gossiping nurses behind her,

"Doesn't anybody have anything to be doing?"

***

As her shift finished she quickly grabbed her coat from her locker and dodged Tony and then Chuny and Sam and hurried out to the waiting area. They were both still there.

She stood in front of them, trying to ignore the puzzling look on the girl's face, and pulled on her coat, taking her gloves from her pocket she spoke,

"Mr. Giles? There's a coffee place across the way."

"Of course, lead the way," he said, standing up and trading glances with his charge.

A few minutes later the three of them were settled into a booth with a cup of coffee and a pastry each.

"So..." she said.

"Yes," he answered.

"Seriously Giles," the girl laughed, "you're lucky it's me here and not any of the others."

The girl turned her large eyes on Neela and grinned, holding out a hand across the table she introduced herself,

"Dawn Summers. Not a slayer, if you were wondering."

Somehow Neela felt slightly ashamed to feel relieved as she shook Dawn's hand, answering with her own name.

Over the next half an hour Neela heard what she was sure was the abridged version of Dawn's sister's life to date, the life of the last single slayer. The facts and figures she had spent a whole summer learning, and finding herself unable to forget, were rushing back to the forefront of her mind. Part way through Dawn excused herself, saying she had a meeting to make with a potential advisor at Northwestern.

For the first time she found herself enjoying a conversation with the man she now knew as just Giles, still she found herself asking him to get to the point as she was sure this wasn't just a visit to an old acquaintance whilst he was in town with Dawn.

No. He had two favours to ask. One for her to watch over Dawn for them, not in the capital 'W' sense, just keep an eye on her, be a friend if she needed it. The other was the more difficult task - be the local area council doctor.

Any slayers injured in the Chicago area would come to her.

"Can I have some time?" she asked, already knowing she had her answer, just wishing it had taken her longer to decide.

"Of course," he answered handing her a card from his jacket pocket, "Dawn and I shall be in town for three more days, give either of us a ring when you want to talk."

***

So that was how she found herself as confidante to The Slayer's Sister - given capitals by those lower within the Council who saw the original Sunnydale inhabitants as something of a living legend.

How she found herself married to one ex-stuffy Rupert Giles no more than a year later is another story altogether.


End file.
